NYPD: Another Pedestrian is Killed on Deadly Church Avenue

By Julianne Cuba
Jul 10, 2019

Here's the intersection of E. Fifth St. and Church Avenue where a pedestrian was struck. He later died from his injuries. Photo: Google

A reckless driver hit and killed a 50-year-old man on dangerous Church Avenue — the latest fatality in a year that’s experiencing a double-digit increase in road bloodshed.

Police say a 21-year-old driver of a 2015 Nissan was traveling north on E. Fifth Street at around midnight on June 27 — and struck the pedestrian in a crosswalk as he tried to make a left turn onto Church.

The driver, whose name was not released, stayed on the scene as paramedics rushed the victim to Maimonides Hospital in critical condition. The pedestrian, whose name was also not released, died of his injuries on July 6, police said on Wednesday.

The driver was not immediately charged. An NYPD spokesman said police are still investigating.

The crash occurred just 1,500 feet away from another Church Avenue intersection where another driver killed a single mother on Monday. In that case, police say 63-year-old Claudette Crosby hit and killed 49-year-old Maria Del Carmen Porras-Hernandez as she was also crossing inside the marked crosswalk at Church Avenue and Coney Island Avenue.

ANOTHER PEDESTRIAN KILLED: i’m in the corner of coney island and church avenue where a pedestrian was struck by a car and killed, cops say.

cop tells me a car was making a right turn, and collided with another car. a pedestrian was crossing the street and was struck and killed. pic.twitter.com/u1vCoZApSf

— zainab iqbal (@planetzainab) July 8, 2019

Cops later arrested Crosby and slapped her with summonses for failure to yield to a pedestrian and failure to exercise due care.

The latest death is the 110th so far this bloody year — an 18.3-percent increase in road fatalities since 2018, according to the Department of Transportation. As of Tuesday, 56 pedestrians have been killed so far this year, which is three more than this time last year, and 15 cyclists have been killed, which is eight more than this time last year.

Cyclists and safe-street activists held a die-in in Washington Square Park on Tuesday night to send a message to Mayor de Blasio and to drivers citywide to stop killing them.